Review of AMBERZINE

A few months ago, I reviewed the AMBER DICELESS RPG and its only supplement, SHADOW KNIGHT, on RPGnet. Since then, I have had the opportunity to exchange a few e-mails with Erick Wujcik, the author of the game, who was kind enough to send me the five last issues (7 to 11) of AMBERZINE as free review copies – five densely packed issues, which are still available from Guardians of Order (check their website).

On a purely commercial level, I’m not sure whether Amberzine is a « true » fanzine, a pro-zine, a semi-pro-zine or whatever, but that really doesn’t matter. As far as content is concerned, it is a fanzine in the truest sense of the word : a fan-oriented publication, aimed at a very specific target audience – hardcore ADRPG enthusiasts. It also had a very irregular rate of publication, which is another common characteristic of fanzines : issue 7 was published in July 1994, issue 8 in November 1995, issue 9 in January 1996, issue 10 in October 1997 and issue 11... in May 2001. Each issue costs 10 $ (except issue 11, which costs 13) and has a page count of 150 or so (except issue 7, which has 192), with black & white interior art.

WHAT'S IN IT ?

Amberzine is definitely not a standard RPG zine – but then, the Amber Diceless RPG is not your standard RPG either.

The main focus of the zine is not game material per se, but inspiration – mostly in the form of « character diaries » from ongoing or past ADRPG campaigns ; these stories vary widely in length (some are only a few pages long, while others are closer to short novels – or novellas if you will) as well as in quality or interest (ranging from self-indulgent fan fiction to really interesting source of weird ideas).

Unlike most game fiction, the stories published in Amberzine do not exist to enforce a « canonical » game setting or official metaplot : since each story is based on a different ADRPG campaign, each one offers a different vision of the Amberverse – including, in some case, some seriously alternate settings (fancy an Amberverse where Brand has won the Patternfall War and become King of Amber ?). This approach, in itself, perfectly illustrates the freeform, freestyle, create-your-own-reality philosophy inherent to AMBER gaming. These stories are not literary masterpieces, of course, but as far as inspiration for gaming is concerned, most of them contain several interesting or intriguing ideas – something that standard game fiction generally fails to achieve.

Each issue had a different guest editor – which probably explains why the « balance of contents » varies widely from one issue to another : some issues are almost exclusively devoted to character diaries, while others present a more mixed bag - which usually made for a more enjoyable read, but that’s entirely a matter of personal taste.

GOOD STUFF

Issue 7 contains a detailed study of the Jewel of Judgment and an excellent article discussing the Good Stuff / Bad Stuff game concept. You also get the usual amount of character diaries, including a series of « vignettes » featuring a very interesting character : Doctor Gwydion, a physician from the Courts of Chaos specialized in the various disorders of shape-shifters... a great idea, which I promptly recycled in my ongoing campaign.

Issue 8 contains some nice Trump portraits of familiar characters as well as one of the last Amber short stories written by Roger Zelazny before his death : « The Guisel and the Shroudling ». Game fiction in this issue is limited to a single 70-page long piece, « Bronwyn’s Tale : Part III », based on a campaign ran by Erick Wujcik himself - an entertaining read, on the whole.

The bulk of Issue 9 is almost completely taken by an unusually long (and quite good) piece of character fiction called « Reversal of Fortune ».

Issue 10 features another Amber short story by Zelazny, « Coming to a Cord » (which focuses on Frakir, the living, invisible strangling-cord of Merlin) and several other tales – including a good short story called « Shards of my Mind », which offers a very clever twist of the old « adventurers-going-through-an-underground-maze » fantasy cliché.

Issue 11 has a color cover. It features several short stories, as well as some interesting « Thoughts on Trump Artistry », written from an artist's point of view.

NOT SO GOOD STUFF

All issues except issue 11 also feature a short episode of Shadowknight, an illustrated series featuring the main characters from Roger Zelazny’s Amber novels, with a very « quick-and-dirty » graphic style, a somewhat hard-to-follow storyline and a tendency to cram enormous amounts of text in single, small-sized frames. Definitely not the best part of the zine, but not complete crap either ; ADRPG referees might use it as a source of ideas or taglines when roleplaying the Elder Amberites.

Issues 8 and 9 also feature parts 2 and 3 of a comic strip called Amber Raves of Pain (I guess part 1 was published before issue 7), an odd (and rather unconvincing) combination of swords-and-powers-wielding Amberites, cyberpunkish machines and cartoony art.

Obviously, the illustrated series are not the forte of Amberzine and are of a definitely lesser quality than most of the character diaries and short stories.

TO SUM UP

As an Amber referee, I found Amberzine to be an interesting and entertaining read - even though I generally dislike game fiction. The best stories can be used as a ready source of concepts, characters and situations – something an Amber referee is always looking for, given the unique premises of the game setting. On the whole, I found issue 7 to be the most interesting of the lot, probably because it had the most varied contents.

What Amberzine gives you is an open window on other people’s visions of the Amberverse. Over the years, it also played a major role in the continuing story of the ADRPG community – a very active and dedicated community, as shown by the sheer longevity of the zine.

Speaking of longevity, Erick Wujcik recently mentioned the possibility of publishing a final, twelfth issue of Amberzine, which would be a fitting tribute to all the people who have kept AMBER alive over the years... and will continue to do so as long as All Roads Lead to Amber.